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My boyfriend is a self employed carpenter. As the people who call him to do work are considered his customers, I will put this here.
He agreed to do a job for a new retail store. Basically, they have one location, they are opening a new location in a strip mall, and they need someone to build all of the dressing rooms, hang slat walls, sheet rock, paint - all the things that make a store look like a store. The agreement was $2000 up front, and $2500 upon completion.
Simple enough, right?
He finished up the job the last week of February. On the second to last day, the store manager K told him, "I have your check, but you're not finished, so I can't give it to you yet." He was fine with this. The next day when he finished, the store manager was not there, but the part-owner J was. He asked her about the check, she told him that she couldn't get a hold of K, but K didn't have a check anyway, so she'd have to have him a check sent from New York, where the other part owner N is. (This is BS because J wrote him the initial $2000 check)
For two days, he heard nothing from anyone. N and J won't return phone calls. Just as he's starting to get pissed (this was about 2/27) N from New York calls. He gives a sob story about how this store has had nothing but problems, how it's opening a month later than planned, how he has had to pay employees he didn't need so they would have a paycheck even though the store isn't open yet - Bottom line, he says he doesn't have the money to pay for the work. He says that BF can go up to the store Monday 3/3 and pick up two checks. One will be dated 3/5, the other 3/12. Each will be for $1250. He says that this is the only solution he can offer for BF to get paid. BF is very unhappy with this, but we need the money, so he agrees.
3/3 When BF went up to the store, K acted like she knew nothing about any checks and called J. She hung up, pulled out the two checks, dated as agreed upon, and changed the dates to 3/13 and 3/20. He asked why, she said she was only doing as she was told. BF took the checks, left the store, and called N to ask what was going on. N said he knew nothing about it and said he'd call back. He didn't. BF waited a couple days and then left messages for J and N, saying that if the first check was not good on 3/13, he would turn it over to the DA.
Today 3/12, N called. He said that since BF was being nasty. he had stopped payment on the checks. He said that the work was crappy anyway, and he wasn't going to pay for it. So now we're out $2500 for work he did for these lowlifes. That was bill money, dammit! I assume these people get paid when they work, so why shouldn't BF? We talked to the DA and police dept, and basically, all we can do is sue them in small claims court.
Anybody have any suggestions on what we can do about these people? I was thinking along the lines of boiling them in oil, but I think it's illegal.
He agreed to do a job for a new retail store. Basically, they have one location, they are opening a new location in a strip mall, and they need someone to build all of the dressing rooms, hang slat walls, sheet rock, paint - all the things that make a store look like a store. The agreement was $2000 up front, and $2500 upon completion.
Simple enough, right?
He finished up the job the last week of February. On the second to last day, the store manager K told him, "I have your check, but you're not finished, so I can't give it to you yet." He was fine with this. The next day when he finished, the store manager was not there, but the part-owner J was. He asked her about the check, she told him that she couldn't get a hold of K, but K didn't have a check anyway, so she'd have to have him a check sent from New York, where the other part owner N is. (This is BS because J wrote him the initial $2000 check)
For two days, he heard nothing from anyone. N and J won't return phone calls. Just as he's starting to get pissed (this was about 2/27) N from New York calls. He gives a sob story about how this store has had nothing but problems, how it's opening a month later than planned, how he has had to pay employees he didn't need so they would have a paycheck even though the store isn't open yet - Bottom line, he says he doesn't have the money to pay for the work. He says that BF can go up to the store Monday 3/3 and pick up two checks. One will be dated 3/5, the other 3/12. Each will be for $1250. He says that this is the only solution he can offer for BF to get paid. BF is very unhappy with this, but we need the money, so he agrees.
3/3 When BF went up to the store, K acted like she knew nothing about any checks and called J. She hung up, pulled out the two checks, dated as agreed upon, and changed the dates to 3/13 and 3/20. He asked why, she said she was only doing as she was told. BF took the checks, left the store, and called N to ask what was going on. N said he knew nothing about it and said he'd call back. He didn't. BF waited a couple days and then left messages for J and N, saying that if the first check was not good on 3/13, he would turn it over to the DA.
Today 3/12, N called. He said that since BF was being nasty. he had stopped payment on the checks. He said that the work was crappy anyway, and he wasn't going to pay for it. So now we're out $2500 for work he did for these lowlifes. That was bill money, dammit! I assume these people get paid when they work, so why shouldn't BF? We talked to the DA and police dept, and basically, all we can do is sue them in small claims court.
Anybody have any suggestions on what we can do about these people? I was thinking along the lines of boiling them in oil, but I think it's illegal.
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